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The Pressure of Preschool

August 15, 2017 by Guest Writer

Preschool Playing“My son can already write his name!” says a proud mother. “My daughter is not quite four, and she has just learned to read!” says another. One mom shrinks back into her seat, wondering if she’s doing something wrong. Should her son or daughter be reading at age three or four? Should her two-year-old be learning to form the shapes of letters?

For decades, parents have felt the pressure to hurry their preschoolers’ learning. They don’t want their children to be left behind. For homeschool parents, the pressure is even greater. They may feel that the world is looking at them more critically, ready to point out any perceived underachievement. If you’re feeling the pressure to teach your child more aggressively or to start kindergarten early, consider these important factors.

Rates of Development

Babies learn to crawl, walk, and talk at different rates; there is no ideal timetable. It’s the same for preschoolers and kindergarteners. Some will learn to read quickly; others will catch on to math concepts; and others may simply be interested in movement and play. Trying to force a child to mature more quickly can lead to behavioral issues and a dislike of learning.

Freedom to Grow

Kids need time to invent, explore, and create. They need space to run, jump, and climb, especially during the formative preschool and kindergarten years. Giving them the freedom to experiment, discover, and move through their world builds their confidence and their ability to solve problems—things that will prove valuable when they begin their homeschool years.

Perceptions of Potential

If you stress reading too early, you might become frustrated and discouraged; you may even think that your child doesn’t have the potential to be a great reader. That’s not necessarily the case; he may simply be operating on his own schedule.  Instead of frustrating yourself and your child, wait until the time is right to begin a more organized style of homeschooling.

Statistical Proof

A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed that delaying kindergarten for a year had remarkable benefits for children. Kids who were seven when they started formal instruction were measurably more attentive and less hyperactive at age eleven than kids who began kindergarten at the “normal” age of five or six. The kids who started kindergarten a year later had more time to learn self-control and mental focus before beginning their school career.

Preparation for Kindergarten

You can introduce your child to text and numbers in many age-appropriate ways. There are numbers on calendars, clocks, mile markers, your house, and store receipts. Words are everywhere—on cereal boxes, toys, storefronts, street signs, letters, and clothes.

When you read storybooks together, ask your little ones to show you the pictures and point to text. You are developing your child’s “print awareness” which is a prerequisite to phonics instruction. Where are the characters? What are they doing in the picture? What will happen next? It’s a fun way to engage with your children and start teaching them about story components and progression without getting too academic.

Maybe your little ones would enjoy dictating stories or letters for you to write down and read aloud. These activities emphasize the relationship of thought to oral and written language. And if those little bodies start to get wiggly, maybe it’s time to switch to another kind of education—learning through play.

• • • • •

Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: early learning, homeschool, homeschool parents, homeschooling, kindergarten, preschool

6 Books for Curious Preschoolers

March 7, 2017 by Justin

Since we have a little one on the way, I decided to get a head start and shop for some books that my son and I can read together over the next few years. I found some great options for curious toddlers and preschoolers. I like these books because they cover everyday things that children interact with and love to learn about. They’re simple—the kind of book you can go back to over and over again and never get bored.

Freight Train by Crews

Less is more. Modern illustrations and minimal text leave the door wide open for mom or dad to inject their own “choo choo” effects as the train barrels down the tracks toward its destination.

Amazing Airplanes by Mitton and Parker

Planning a trip? This fun book about airports and airliners will make your preschooler an expert before check-in. I would have loved this as a curious kid who was fascinated with the baggage-claim carousel.

City Signs by Milich

The title says it all. This book is nothing but phtographs of signs, signs, and more signs. Ever wonder how some kids figure out what they all mean before they can read?

Hands: Growing Up to Be an Artist by Ehlert

This very creative book focused on making things by hand has photographs that show raw materials, tools, and finished products of various crafts. It explains (in simple terms) how the object was made. A great learning tool!

Meet the Orchestra by Hayes

If you’re like a lot of parents, you probably play some classical music for your kids. This book identifies a wide range of musical instruments and the sounds they make. It’s perfect for reading while listening to your favorite compositions.

If Everybody Did by Stover

This one is a favorite among parents around our office. It answers that age-old question, “What would happen if everyone did that?” Silly illustrations teach valuable life lessons. A must-read for every child.

I’m looking forward to reading these books with my child to capture the many benefits of reading together. I hope my sharing them will help your family find many hours of enjoyable reading time.

Have book recommendations? I’d love to hear them! Drop them in the comments below.

Image Source

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: book list, books, early learning, language arts, oral reading, preschool, reading

Ready to Learn: A Benefit of Preschool Curriculum

February 2, 2016 by Megan

image of young boy working on a BJU Press preschool textbook

When my oldest daughter completed kindergarten last summer, I was ready to make sure that she wouldn’t experience any of the summer learning loss that I had read so much about. I had purchased BJU Press’s Vacation Stations: Beyond the Back Door workbook and carefully planned a daily summer schedule that would allow us time to review concepts and practice reading.

I also planned to do preschool with my three-year-old daughter to help keep her occupied and to prepare her for four-year-old kindergarten in the fall. I talked to some friends about my intentions, and they suggested that I purchase a preschool workbook from a store like Walmart® or Sam’s Club™.

Unlike complete curriculum packages, workbooks do not include instructional materials. However, I was pretty confident in my ability to teach preschool-level skills. After shopping around, I found what I thought was the perfect workbook. Designed for ages three-to-five, it contained almost three hundred pages of full-color, perforated pages. The activities looked fun. It promised to help my daughter learn skills such as the alphabet, shapes, numbers, colors, and more. It even included a CD-ROM. Best of all was its price tag—$5.99.

My daughter was excited to do “school” along with her big sister, but that excitement soon turned into frustration. The workbook was asking her to do things that she was not prepared to do. For example, the first page in the section designed to teach color skills directed her to color a picture of a crayon blue, trace the word blue (the font being only 2-3 inches high) and draw a picture of a blue house. She had not developed the fine motor skill needed to do the tracing or the drawing. We ran into another such difficulty in the number section. At the top of the page she was shown three objects and was directed to circle the object that only appeared once in the larger picture at the bottom of the page. My daughter was utterly confused.

After a few weeks of repeated frustration, we completely abandoned the workbook. Even though my daughter didn’t learn the alphabet or her numbers over the summer, she’s learning them now with the help of BJU Press’s Footsteps for Fours curriculum. Her experience with this curriculum has been completely positive—she enjoys it so much that she wants to do school all day long.

It’s easy to think that the concepts taught in preschool and kindergarten are so basic that you don’t need a curriculum, but this experience taught me differently. One of the biggest values of an early-learning curriculum is in its sequencing. Within a good curriculum, skills and concepts are taught in certain order; they build on one another. The result of sequencing is that children are prepared for the introduction of new skills and concepts. They don’t get frustrated because they have been given all the tools they need to succeed. And succeed they will. Not only will they gain new knowledge and skills, but they will have the confidence they need for continued success.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: early learning, early learning curriculum, homeschool, preschool, workbooks

P Is for Party!

October 9, 2014 by Megan

Preschool and K4 students work their way through the alphabet letter by letter. They need to learn to recognize letters by their shapes, and they need to know what sounds the letter makes. These are important pre-reading skills that will help them when they get to K5 and beyond.

Learning the alphabet doesn’t have to be boring. Since young children learn best by experiencing the world around them, parents and teachers can make learning fun by involving all of the senses.

October is both National Pizza Month (according to pizza.com) and National Popcorn Poppin’ Month (according to popcorn.org). Put these two ideas together for a fantastic p-themed party that will help teach little ones about the letter p.

Dress

Encourage the kids to dress up as something that begins with the letter p. Examples include a pirate, parrot, princess, painter, pumpkin, policeman, popsicle, or postal worker. Or you could let them wear their pajamas to school!

Food

Every party has to have food. For this p-themed party, pizza and popcorn are on the menu. Below are some great easy recipes for treats you can prepare ahead of time.

 

caramel popcorn in a treat bag and bowl

Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients

4 quarts popped popcorn (unsalted, butter-free)

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup light Karo® syrup

1 stick margarine

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions
        1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a shallow roasting pan with foil and coat it with cooking spray. Add popped popcorn.
        2. Combine the margarine, salt, brown sugar, and Karo® syrup in a medium saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a rolling boil.
        3. Boil for five minutes without stirring. Remove from heat, and quickly add the baking soda and vanilla; stir until the mixture turns an even caramel color.
        4. Pour mixture over popped popcorn and toss to coat evenly.
        5. Bake for one hour, tossing every fifteen minutes. Allow to cool; store in an airtight container.

Veggie Pizza

Ingredients

2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls

1 cup sour cream

1 8-oz. package cream cheese

1 package dry ranch dressing mix

1 small onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1½ cups broccoli, chopped

1 carrot, grated

Directions
            1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
            2. Pat crescent roll dough onto a greased jellyroll pan. Pierce with a fork.
            3. Bake for ten minutes. Cool completely.
            4. In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, cream cheese, and ranch dressing mix. Spread onto crust.
            5. Add chopped vegetables. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour or more in the fridge. Cut into small triangles and serve.

Games/Activities

Don’t forget about your kinesthetic learners. Below are some p-themed activities to get the kids moving.

Parade

The day before the party, ask the children to bring an object to school that starts with the letter p. Sample objects might include a stuffed puppy, a small pumpkin, a pencil, or a puppet. On party day, let each child carry his object as you all line up and walk around the school building. Be sure to smile and wave at the people you pass!

Musical Pillows

The day before the party, ask the children to bring a pillow to school. Play the classic game of musical chairs, but use pillows instead!

Peanut Toss

Materials

Bag of circus peanuts
Two buckets or other open containers
Masking tape

Directions
                1. Divide the children into two teams.
                2. Use the masking tape to mark two starting lines on the floor. Place the buckets two to three feet away from the tape marks.
                3. Challenge the children to try to toss the circus peanuts into the bucket. The team that gets more circus peanuts in the bucket wins.

As you can imagine, the possibilities for a p-themed party are endless! If you have a  p-themed party idea, please tell us about it in the comments.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: alphabet, Christian school, early learning, games, homeschool, letter P, party, preschool, recipe

Playful Learning

August 25, 2014 by Megan

I have three daughters at home. One is a newborn, but my other two (3 and 5) are into everything. Nothing is safe. My three-year-old in particular seems to have a knack for making messes. Every open container of water must be explored (she loves pouring water into other containers); every food item within reach must be touched (this is why we had salty pancakes this past weekend)—you get the picture.

At a homeschool conference I attended earlier this year, I went to a workshop about homeschooling preschoolers. One big take-away from that session was the fact that young children learn best through experiencing the world around them. When babies put things into their mouths, they are learning. When toddlers mold dough into shapes, mix paint colors, and touch things like peanut butter, they are learning.

 

I’m really glad that BJU Press understands this. In fact, the introduction of the Pathways for Preschool Teacher’s Edition talks about this very thing: “Children learn best when they are involved in activity—their play is their work. A setting that allows them to observe, explore, interact, play, and discover is vital to their development” (p. xii). BJU Press recommends using centers to create this setting and gives many ideas for centers throughout the curriculum.

As a homeschooler, you can arrange your home to encourage this type of learning. Designate spaces in your home where your child can role-play, create art projects, build with blocks, read books, and so on. Invest in toys that inspire creative play. Set aside time to do crafts, cook, and play with your child. Below are some resources for inspiration.

  • BJU Press Pathways for Preschool curriculum
  • BJU Press Footsteps for Fours curriculum
  • Preschooler’s Busy Book (by Trissh Kuffner)
  • Home Grown Preschooler’s Pinterest account
  • Deborah @ Teach Preschool’s Pinterest account

What are some fun learning activities that you have done with your small children?

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: early learning, homeschool, homeschool conventions, preschool, sensory learning

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